August, 2006 News (continued)
Open letter calls for protection of Darfur women
11 Aug 2006 4:00 am
The Minority Rights Group International is sending an open letter to human rights leaders calling for better protection for women in Darfur. Gender officer Katrina Naomi says, “Rape is being used as a tool of war and militias are being allowed to act with impunity.”
Asked how UN or human rights officials could pressure the Khartoum government, Naomi says, “We felt, Minority Rights Group, that by sending open letters to various experts at the United Nations that we could try and draw the attention back onto that very difficult situation in Darfur. After all, the government of Sudan under international law does have to try and protect women within the state, regardless of who’s actually carrying out these attacks”
College workshop focuses on preventing sex assault
Heather Barr
11 Aug 2006 4:00 am
Linda McGarr worries that her 17-year-old daughter, Katie, who is going to college thousands of miles away this fall, may not be aware of the all dangers she faces and be able to make the right decision in a bad situation.
The New Preston mother asked her daughter Wednesday night if she would spend two hours of her only night off from work to attend a College Safety Workshop held by the Women's Center of Greater Danbury, where topics ranged from sexual assault to dating violence.
One statistic that really got Katie McGarr thinking was that the highest risk of a sexual assault for new students occurs between the first day of college and Thanksgiving break.
Judge's ruling in DNA case presses state toward testing
KATIE PESZNECKER
11 Aug 2006 1:49 am
The state must allow DNA testing on a piece of evidence from a 1993 rape case where one of the men convicted says he is innocent, a federal judge has ruled.
The order issued last week is a victory for William Osborne, who is serving a 26-year sentence after an Anchorage jury found him guilty of rape and kidnapping. Osborne has been fighting for years for the right to test a blue condom for evidence that someone else took part in a two-man Earthquake Park attack on a prostitute. The condom was used against Osborne at trial.
Rapist won’t fight rendition to Bay State
Norman Miller
11 Aug 2006 1:32 am
A convicted child rapist arrested in Louisiana on Wednesday after two years on the run waived his right to fight rendition yesterday in the Franklin Parish Court, authorities said.
Marlon Morris, 30, formerly of Framingham, will be brought back to Massachusetts early next week, said Middlesex Sheriff spokesman Michael Hartigan.
Morris repeatedly raped and sexually assaulted the 13-year-old sister of his then girlfriend on Nov. 17, 2002, in a Framingham apartment.
Missing Kids Could Be With Convicted Sex Offender
11 Aug 2006 12:00 am
Colorado detectives say two children are in extreme danger after a convicted sex offender kidnapped them. Police in Avon, Colorado say that Pedro Mata Rodriguez abducted 11-year-old Jose Lewis Cerrato and his 15-year-old sister Jessica Marbella Garcia. Rodriguez was living with the children's mother in Avon -- a Colorado resort community.
When Cerrato and Garcia's mother got home from work on Friday, she was faced with every parent's worst nightmare. The children were gone, along with most of their belongings. Police issued an AMBER Alert, which has since expired. But the kids are still missing and cops are racing to find them.
One of the biggest concerns is Rodriguez's trouble with the law. The 31-one-year-old was convicted in Florida of fondling a child. Police say he did time in prison and was deported back to Mexico. But he didn't learn his lesson. He allegedly crossed the border illegally, breaking the law yet again.
Police are trying to get Jose and Jessica back in safe hands as soon as possible. Cops say Rodriguez is 5 feet 3 inches tall, weighs 145 pounds, has brown eyes and black short hair. He has been known to wear a mustache, but may have shaved it off recently.
Jose is 4 feet 8 inches tall and weighs 98 pounds and has brown hair and brown eyes. Jessica is 5 feet 2 inches tall and weighs 120 pounds. She has brown hair and brown eyes.
Four rapes in one week in Kirksville
Associated Press
11 Aug 2006 12:00 am
A registered sex offender previously convicted of statutory rape was arrested Friday morning on charges of raping a juvenile, the fourth sexual assault in Kirksville this week.
It's unusual to have four sexual assault cases in one week in the small town, Kirksville Police Chief Jim Hughes acknowledged. But Hughes doesn't believe the cases are a harbinger of a sexual assault trend, saying the circumstances in each case vary greatly and residents shouldn't be worried for their safety.
"The community should rest assured that these are separate, unrelated events, and that the criminal investigations have identified those most likely involved," Hughes said in a news release.
Butterflies will soar for those who can't yet fly
WENDY ISOM
11 Aug 2006 12:00 am
One day, they all strive to spread their wings and fly.
That statement is as true for butterflies as it is for recovering victims of domestic abuse and violent sexual crimes, said Margaret Cole, executive director of the Wo/Men's Resource and Rape Assistance Program in Jackson.
"The butterfly symbolizes rebirth, regeneration and renewal of life," Cole said. "We help them (victims) build their self-esteem back."
And the annual WRAP Butterfly Release and fund-raiser event in Jackson serves as a reminder of that goal, she said. WRAP started the butterfly release in 2003.
Let's not shut eyes to cruelty
JOE DEPRIEST
11 Aug 2006 12:00 am
They're the invisible.
Living on the margins of society.
Mostly poor women and children, who don't speak English, forced to work in such places as fields, factories or brothels.
Victims of human trafficking are subjected to force, fraud or coercion, for the purpose of sexual exploitation or forced labor, according to a federal government definition.
Earlier this year, in an effort to curb human trafficking in the Charlotte region, the FBI created a toll-free telephone number for the public to report human trafficking concerns.
The Observer has reported that FBI and Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department investigators have said hundreds of Hispanic women are brought in and out of Charlotte every week. They work at more than a dozen brothels connected to sex-trafficking rings along the East Coast.
The U.S. Department of Health & Human Services: Administration for Children and Families to Rescue & Restore Victims of Human Trafficking Web site is www.acf.hhs.gov/trafficking.
The FBI's 24-hour toll-free number to report human trafficking activities is 866-252-6850.
US police chief says sorry after officers joked about shot woman
Richard Luscombe
11 Aug 2006 12:00 am
A police chief has apologised after he was caught on video laughing about a female lawyer who was shot in the head at a protest demonstration by his officers.
Elizabeth Ritter was alone and unarmed when she was hit by a hail of rubber bullets fired by police in riot gear at a free trade demonstration in Miami in 2003.
After she fell to the ground and turned to face them, one bullet ripped through a placard she was carrying and struck her in the forehead.
On a training video filmed the following morning and released to the media this week, Major John Brooks of the Broward County Sheriff's Department tells cheering colleagues how proud he was of their performance during the incident. "How about yesterday, huh?" he said. "I was so pumped up about how good you guys were."
Testimony induced by hypnosis rejected
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
11 Aug 2006 12:00 am
The New Jersey Supreme Court on Thursday barred witness testimony stemming from hypnosis in all criminal trials, except when the so-called refreshed testimony comes from a defendant.
With the 6-1 ruling by the state's highest court, New Jersey joins 26 other states that limit the admissibility of testimony that is extracted under hypnosis.
Both concurring in part and dissenting in part, Justice Roberto Rivera-Soto said he agreed that in the case of Clarence McKinley Moore accepted procedures regarding hypnosis were not followed but that evidence as a result should still be allowed.
But the court, reversing a position it took 25 years ago, said it now agrees that hypnotically refreshed testimony is not generally accepted science."
Sex victim flees area to Guatemala
Jeff Cull and Amy Williams
11 Aug 2006 12:00 am
State attorneys are investigating the sudden disappearance of a 16-year-old Guatemalan girl who is the alleged victim of rape by her foster father.
The girl fled to her native country last month without telling authorities or her current caretaker.
She is a key witness in the case against Robert Jackson, 56, who was arrested Jan. 3 after his wife, Janie, reported finding her husband engaged in sex with the girl.
He was charged with unlawful sexual activity and battery, all second-degree felonies punishable by up to 15 years in prison. He was released from the Lee County Jail in May after posting $150,000 bond.
Reached by The News-Press in Guatemala, the girl said she left because she was frustrated with “the whole situation.
“I guess to them (DCF) I’m a runaway,” the girl said, “but not to me. I wanted to get away from there.”
Suspect in 7-year-old's rape had visited home
LARRY BINGHAM
11 Aug 2006 12:00 am
Kidnap case - Sex predator Hugh Hile was registered with police after dropping "off the radar" for six years
A convicted sexual predator charged with kidnapping and raping a 7-year-old Albany girl visited the apartment where the girl lives at least once the week before the alleged abduction, police said.
Hugh Hile was arraigned on one count of unlawful contact with a child, one count of kidnapping, two counts of rape, four counts of sodomy and four counts of unlawful sexual penetration.
He has a long criminal history. He was convicted of three felonies that brought jail time: possession of a controlled substance, and breaking into a Lane County home and attempting to rape a 21-year-old pregnant woman.
Prisoners of Katrina
Olenka Frenkiel
10 Aug 2006 3:42 pm
In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, while thousands fled New Orleans, the city's prisoners were trapped. Fresh eye-witness accounts reveal what really happened to those left behind, and how crucial forensic evidence was simply washed away.
In September 2005, long after most people had fled a devastated city, inmates of Orleans Parish Prison - many of them shackled - were still waiting to be rescued from the blazing heat and the stinking floods.
"They basically abandoned the prison," says Vincent Norman, a chef arrested for an unpaid fine who found himself locked in a cell for days.
Norman should have been there no more than a week. Instead, abandoned without food, drink or sanitation as the waters rose, he was in prison for 103 days.
"We were just left there to die," said Cardell Williams, a prisoner who spent two months in jail without ever being charged.
In the days before the hurricane, when other citizens of New Orleans were ordered to leave, city leaders were asked: "What about the prisoners in the jail?"
"The prisoners will stay where they belong," replied Marlin Gusman, the criminal sheriff in charge of the city jail.
But it was a gamble he would regret.
Policeman accused of raping 4 indicted
JAN DENNIS
10 Aug 2006 1:52 pm
A police sergeant accused of raping four women since 2002 was charged in a grand jury indictment unsealed Thursday with 35 counts, including multiple attacks on three of the victims.
He was first arrested in June and charged with attempting to break into a woman's home in the middle of the night. At the time, he was wearing a black T-shirt and shorts and told an officer he was out looking for a home for his mother-in-law, officials said.
Police have said they found a mask, pry bar and other items in his home that appeared to have been used in at least one of the assaults. Prosecutors said three of the accusers identified him from photo lineups and two identified him by voice.
The charges against him include home invasion and aggravated unlawful restraint involving two of the women. The charges allege he was armed with a gun or knife in those attacks. He faces intimidation charges in one attack because he allegedly threatened to harm the woman's family if she contacted police.
Bye bye badge
David L. Harris
10 Aug 2006 12:00 pm
He was an honorably discharged Navy veteran and father of two girls.
But now that the 31-year-old Somerville cop has been accused of allegedly sexually abusing his now-2-year-old niece he was babysitting, whatever record he had established in his six years on the force is overshadowed by the accusations.
An investigative team composed of the Melrose Police Department and the Middlesex District Attorney’s Office’s Child Abuse Prosecution Division allege that the child was assaulted by Winfield with a hot object, resulting in serious burns, some of which were inside the child’s vagina. Authorities said that the child’s mother returned for her later that day and the injuries, which the mother and her parents initially thought might have been a severe case of diaper rash, worsened over the next 24-36 hours.
Registry law snags sex-crime fugitive
Dennis Wagner
10 Aug 2006 12:00 am
A Chandler sex-crime fugitive was nabbed by U.S. marshals while playing poker in a Mississippi casino Wednesday, becoming the first Arizona suspect captured under a new federal law designed to keep track of unregistered sex offenders.
Former preschool operator Gregory Edward Vernon, 46, was captured while playing Texas Hold'em, according to Josh Butout, a U.S. Marshals Service spokesman in Phoenix.
Vernon is under Arizona indictment for sexual exploitation of minors and other offenses in conjunction with his role as a director of Loving Hearts Preschool, an unlicensed day-care center operated out of his Chandler residence.
Vernon is the first Arizona fugitive arrested under the Adam Walsh Act, which gives the Marshals Service primary authority for tracking and apprehending sex offenders who fail to register. The measure was signed by President Bush on July 27, the 25th anniversary of the abduction-murder of a 6-year-old boy from a Florida shopping mall.
